Doctors get bigger parking discounts than the sick and injured at Australian public hospitals

EXORBITANT hospital parking fees mean some patients are paying more for parking each week than rent — but wealthy doctors often pay nothing at all.

EXCLUSIVE

THE nation’s sickest patients and their families are paying up to 32 times more to park at public hospitals than the high-earning doctors who work there.

Even the Australian Medical Association says the situation isn’t fair.

A News Corp Australia investigation has found at some hospitals patients can pay over $400 a week for parking while doctors at the same hospital pay just $12.88 per week.

Recent tax office data shows surgeons earn on average $574,000 a year, anaesthetists $464,000 and other medical practitioners $441,500, yet some of these highly paid visiting medical officers get to park free of charge at some hospitals.

When patients are granted a parking subsidy by the hospital they still pay three times more to park than doctors at some hospitals.

News Corp Australia is campaigning for state and federal health ministers to impose a cap on hospital parking fees: families should pay no more than $10 a day for parking or $30 a week if they are frequent hospital visitors. Pensioners and concession cardholders should be able to park for free.

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Patients paying 32 times more to park than doctors. Picture: istock

The parking charge inequity is greatest at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney where patients using the private carpark have to pay $59 a day ($413 a week) for parking while doctors pay just $12.88 a week — or $6.88 in an open-air carpark.

At the public carpark at RPA parking costs patients $175 a week.

Patients can obtain a subsidised parking voucher from the hospital reducing fees to $40 a week but that is still three times more than doctors pay.

In Melbourne at the Royal Women’s Hospital, doctors can park for $40 a week but patients and visitors pay six times more: $245.

The hospital offers a discount rate of $77 a week allowing multiple entries for seven days if the partner of a patient stays overnight but that’s still twice what doctors pay.

In Adelaide patients pay $91 a week to park at the Royal Adelaide Hospital or $189 if they use the Wilson Parking station but doctors pay just $38 a week.

In Perth patients pay $21 per day to park at the Fiona Stanley Hospital, nearly six times the $3.70 charge applied to doctors.

The major Brisbane hospital carparks are owned and operated by private providers but at Princess Alexandra Hospital staff pay $6 a day for parking while patients pay $25, four times more.

Queensland Health refused to answer detailed questions about what doctors are charged to park at other Brisbane hospitals, News Corp has been told they park for free.

“Senior doctors, nurses and administrative staff are often provided with parking as part of their employment package,” a spokesman for the department said.

AMA President Dr Michael Gannon says its not fair that doctors pay less than patients to park at hospitals. Picture: News Corp.

Australian Medical Association president Dr Michael Gannon said the disparity in parking charges wasn’t fair.

“I concede it fails to pass the fairness test,” he said.

“I completely agree that it’s an inappropriate level of fees to be levied on patients who are sick and infirm and disadvantaged and the relatives who are visiting them,” he said.

“It sadly reflects the fact we have failed to invest in public hospitals and hospitals see this as an area where they can raise cash,” he said.

Consumers Health Forum chief Leanne Wells said the differences between parking fees paid by hospital staff and patients” shows a failure by authorities to recognise the value of access for patients and their visitors”.

“ That hospitals recognise the barrier of high parking costs to their staff but not to visitors is a concern,” she said.

“Being in hospital can be a distressing and confronting time for people. It’s a time when contact with families and friends is so important to recovery and to helping people cope with treatment for often very serious conditions. Easy access to hospitals should not be undermined by heavy parking charges,” she said.

“Where they don’t already exist, we suggest that governments introduce low cost vouchers and or free parking for concession holders,’ she said.

Brett Holmes the General Secretary NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association said high hospital parking charges were affecting nurses who worked shifts and were not able to afford to live close to their work.

State governments are earning $100 million a year from hospital parking fees. Picture: Thinkstock

“The imposition of car parking fees that they have to pay every day they go to work impacts considerably on their take home pay with daily charges ranging from $5 to $15 adding up over a year to a $3,600 reduction to their take home wages,” he said.

“For some nurses and midwives this can affect where they choose to work and the large inner city hospitals with the highest parking charges can lose very skilled staff”.

Beth Mohl of the Queensland Nurses Union said inequity in the parking arrangements for hospital staff was a huge issue in Queensland where some hospitals let doctors parkfor free.

“Nothing upsets memers more than when some people receive favourable treatment,” she said.

”In some cases senior doctors pay nothing for parking and that angers our members,” she said.

“We want to see all categories of staff treated the same way.

Metro North Health Services this week agreed to work on a soultion for hosital parking costs after 200 concerned members of the public attended a meeting on the issue.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ONLY - Pictured at Sydney Children's Hospital in Randwick today is 13 year old Gidon Goodman, who has started a petition protesting hospital parking fees. Picture: Tim Hunter.

News Corp has revealed state governments are raking in $100 million a year from hospital parking fees that are rising faster than the inflation rate.

Outrageous parking fees of up to $64 a day are making it impossible for some sick people to access the free care available at public hospitals.

Some elderly people are being forced to walk long distances using a walking frame to visit dying relatives because they can’t afford to park.

Parents say they can’t see their sick children as often as they would like because they can’t afford the parking fees.

Thirteen year old Gidon Goodman whose parents have paid over $10,000 in parking fees while treating his rare blood disorder has started a Change.org petition calling for action on parking fees, it has over 77,000 signatures.

The health system caps the annual amount a person has to spend on medicine ($372 for pensioners, $1,475 for general patients).

And there is a Medicare Safety Net limiting out of pocket expenses for doctors fees after patients spend over $647 if they are pensioners or families on Family Tax Benefit.

News Corp wants the federal government to set a similar limit on parking fees.

Originally published as Doctors get bigger parking discounts than the sick and injured at Australian public hospitals